Recipe: Rockfish Cakes

The last time the kids spent the weekend, we were watching Chopped on Food Network.  We love these competition cooking shows.  The format is 4 chefs battle it out through 3 rounds: appetizer, entree and dessert.  Each round, someone gets chopped and the last chef standing wins.  In the show we were watching, I forget what fish they were using, but one of the chefs made a fish cake.  It got me thinking.  I had a bag of rockfish filets in the fridge and I needed to use them up before they went bad.  This recipe is what I put together.

Preparing The Fish

I think I had about 6 filets, so maybe 2-3 lbs of fish, completely deboned.  I sliced each filet into thirds and salt and peppered them.  Next I prepared a large pot and got some water boiling with Old Bay seasoning and a few bay leaves.  Once the water was a full rolling boil, I put the fish in covered the pot, and turned off the heat.  I let it steep for about 30 minutes and then completely drained the fish.  Set aside and let cool.

Preparing The Rest Of The Ingredients

I let the fish cool overnight because I didn’t have the rest of the ingredients 😉  I needed to buy some potatoes and green bell peppers.  I already had white onions and jalapeno onhand.  First I diced up one medium white onion.  I put the diced onions in a frying pan, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and put it on low heat while I cut up the other ingredients.  Next I put some water in a pot and got some water boiling.  I rough cut 3 small potatoes, and 2 carrots and boiled them until fork tender.  While that was going on, I finely diced one bell pepper and one jalapeno.  I cooked the onion down until tender and turned off the burner.

Let’s Make Cakes!

Now to combine everything.  In a large mixing bowl, I took a fork and broke up the fish.  Then I mashed in the potatoes and carrots.  Then I added the onions, bell pepper, and jalapeno.  I added a tablespoon each of cumin, garlic powder and lemon pepper.  Then I whisked 2 eggs and added about a cup of bread crumbs.  Mix all of it together thoroughly.  You want to consistency to be such that you can roll them up into a ball and press into small patties.  If you need to add more breadcrumbs to get there, do it.

Once you have it all to the right consistency.  Roll it into small, just bigger than golf ball sized balls.  Press into a patty.  Dredge in panko.  And then fry until brown.  I’m thinking you could also put them on a baking sheet and bake them too.  Experiment and see how it goes.  And that’s it.  I served it with some chipotle mayo.  Enjoy!

Tags: fish cakes, rockfish cakes, rockfish recipe